InsaneJournal

This was fucked up. Marlene was trying to keep her cool but right at this moment her family was being attacked and she was suddenly in some strange city with a magical note welcoming her to Goodland by someone named Jubilant Entity? Nothing about this was okay, but the first thing she had to do was find the location of the housing. There had to be people there that could help her get back home. Marlene wasn’t going to take this kidnapping standing down, if she had to fight everyone, including this Jubilant Entity to get back home and help her family, she will.

The walk was long, but the directions were easy enough to figure out. By the time she made it to the building, she was already feeling exhausted and her eyes burned and were puffy and read from tears both out of frustration and grief. Greer and Rory. Her heart was pounding in her chest as images of their lifeless bodies on the ground flashed through her mind. They came out of nowhere, her two youngest siblings had only been outside for a second.

“Focus.” Marlene told herself. There was so much she needed to do and she couldn’t afford to break down now.

Sirius looked up after lighting a cigarette when he heard someone approaching. For a moment - a long moment stretched out as it would never end - he was sure he was staring at a ghost. That was the only logical explanation, even if nothing about this place made any logical sense. How else could he be looking at Marlene, who was supposed to be dead, just like everyone else.

"Mars?" he slipped out hoarsely, pushing away from the brick wall and taking two halted steps toward her.

For a brief second, as she stared down at the note giving her the address, it hadn’t clicked that she knew the voice. Marlene nearly did a double-take when she looked ahead and saw Sirius standing outside of the building.

“Sirius?” It was him. There was something different about him but her mind didn’t get a chance to work out because immediately she went to relief and more panicked. Marlene was quick to close the gap. “Sirius! Thank Merlin. You have to help me-” She reached out to take ahold of his arms. “They’re at my home, right now. The fucking-” She hiccuped. “Greer and Rory. They’re both gone. They’re attacking my family, I have to go home.”

"Fuck," he muttered, and he stepped away from her. Not that he didn't want to see her, but he hadn't been good with human touch yet. He played it off, he hoped, by shaking his head. "Timeline's all fucked," he kept muttering. What kind of shite was it that took her away in those last moments? Spared her life but not the rest of her family. "Shite, look, it - you can't go back. We're stuck here for some reason. Greer and Rory - they're -" gone he wanted to say, but she knew that. She didn't need to know that the rest of her family was going to be gone soon too. That she was going to be gone too, if she wasn't here.

"You're safe here," he continued on, gruffly, but Sirius couldn't quite look her in the eye.

Marlene stood there in confusion. “Timeline? What are you-” She stopped as Sirius kept talking. She can’t go back? They were stuck here? When Sirius said her younger siblings names, she felt the knife scrape across her chest. She was breathing heavily but did her best to calm her rapid heartbeat.

“Safe.” She repeated. Marlene wasn’t entirely sure if it was a confirmation of what she was already feeling, what she was afraid what would happen if she were to be sent back home. They were unprepared for the attack, that wasn’t good, Marlene already lost two siblings, the odds weren’t stacking in her favor. “Fuck.” Was all she managed to say after a few breaths. Marlene looked back up at him. “What you do mean by the timeline’s all fucked.” By now she was able to get a better look at him, even through puffy red eyes. “You look different.”

He puffed on his cigarette, exhaled, and then turned to look at her. "I'm older than you are now. I came from '82, '83? One of those." Sirius didn't add to that with anything about Azkaban, which definitely accounted for why he looked different. At least he'd been able to have and keep down real food since showing up here. "This - entity - whatever people are calling it - is bringing people in from all over, so sometimes there's a gap. We have a gap, you and me, between when you were - " And he knew exactly when that was, hadn't been able to get that news out of head in much the same way he wasn't able to get other events out of his head. "And when I was."

Marlene shook her head as she moved over towards him and leaned up against the side of the building. “This is fucked.” A lot of what Sirius was saying wasn’t making sense but some of it was still ringing through her ears. There was a question burning through her mind, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask. Given what was going on back home, there was a gut feeling. Marlene could calculate the odds but she wasn’t ready for the answer. “Older huh?” She sighed. “Great. Now I’ll never hear the end of it.” A small and unsuccessfully attempt to make things light hearted but she really wasn’t feeling all that light-hearted at the moment. “Who else is here?”

He flicked a cigarette up out of the pack in his pocket and offered it to her. "This is definitely fucked," Sirius agreed, coughing into his hand and shaking his head. He turned his face toward her, let himself look at her now, for the first time in person in years, when he'd only been able to see her in his memories. "Remus is here. Lily too. And some witches from our future, went to school with Harry. Hannah Abbott, Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger."

Marlene happily took the cigarette and twirled it for a moment before lighting it. Her head leaned back. “Good that Remus is here.” As for the others, she didn’t recognize the names, but if Sirius said was true, which she didn’t think he’d make something like that up, then they were from the future so it’d make sense that she wouldn’t know them. They were friends with Harry? It was hard to imagine such a tiny little kid being old enough to have friends. “Have you been here for very long? What do you make of this place?”

"Yeah," he said, agreeing about Remus, even if he was trying to avoid Remus most of the time, not wanting to answer any of his probing questions. "Not long. A week, maybe. I'm not great with time these days." Sometimes he slept, sometimes he didn't, who knew what day it was, even. At least here it was easier being around others and having a system of time, unlike being stuck in a cell.

Marlene looked at Sirius curiously. There really was something different about him, but she wasn’t entirely sure if now was the best time to bring it up. “Probably doesn’t really matter here anyway.” She took her hand and rubbed the space above her eyebrows. “This doesn’t make any sense. I know it’s not a portkey, this shouldn’t be possible, but here we are.” Normally Marlene enjoyed exploring the unknown but this was a bit much. It was difficult to comprehend this place and what was going on at home. Her breathing was somewhat back to normal, but she still felt uneasy, just waiting for something else to happen.

"Yeah," he said, a little hollowly. "There are a lot of people here who know more than me, so you should probably go to them with any questions you've got." Sirius still had a lot of questions, but he was less concerned about trying to get them answered. He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. "You all right, Mars?" he asked, quietly, hoarsely.

Marlene nodded. When the time comes she will look into this mess and get some answers. The cigarette touched her lips but let it rest there before taking a drag. She coughed a little, it had been a while since her last one, but this did seem like a good reason to have one now, if there was such a thing. Marlene sighed. “No, not really. What about you?”

He swallowed and stared at her for a long moment before answering. "I've been worse," he admitted. He wanted to touch her but couldn't bring himself to actually do it. "Fuck am I glad to see you." He coughed as he laughed, bitter and dry.

Marlene tried to quickly assess Sirius. She couldn’t quite make the expression on his face but she was certain there was something that Sirius wasn’t telling her. She frowned slightly, but Marlene didn’t think she’d get much out of Sirius right now. “I’m glad to see you too.” There was a lot of things Marlene did not like about the current situation, but having Sirius here did make her feel a little more at ease, which at the moment wasn’t much because of how tense she was, but it was something. “I guess I’ll have to lean on you on how this place works. Is it even safe here? To, you know-” She paused and took out her wand and gave it a small wave.

"I haven't been here that much longer than this, but - yeah, as far as I know, it's just fine to go ahead and do whatever." He didn't have a wand though, so that was pretty pointless for him. He'd always been above average with wandless magic, and of course turning into his animagus form didn't require a wand at all, but he still wouldn't be anywhere near up to snuff as everyone else he knows. "There's a bunch of people 'round who can do all sorts of things. Being a witch or wizard isn't really that crazy."

Marlene considered what he said. “That’s good, I suppose.” It would have been a pain to be surrounded by so many muggles and not be able to use magic. She continued to look at him curiously. “I feel like there’s something you aren’t telling me, Sirius.” He said he was from the future, but he couldn’t remember what year. And while Marlene always thought Sirius looked good, and in some ways he does still, but there was something else about him that almost scared her. Marlene felt like the answer should be obvious, but she couldn’t reach the answer.

“Actually-” She added quickly. “I’m not even sure if I want to know. I don’t know how much more bad news I can take in one day. Or I think I’ll need at least some alcohol.”

Well, that let him off the hook with Marlene for now, so he just nodded, tiredly, and gestured to her to start down the street. "I can definitely lead you to a strong drink," Sirius told her, the ghost of a smile flicking across his face.

“Great.” She paused. “Let’s go, handsome.” The tightness in her chest faded, slightly, but a drink was a good place to start. A drink first, then she can figure the rest out later.